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Methodology

The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), founded by Harvard Business School Professor Michael E. Porter in 1994, defines inner cities as core urban areas with higher unemployment and poverty rates and lower median incomes than their surrounding metropolitan statistical areas. Every year, ICIC identifies, ranks, andspotlights the 100 fastest-growing businesses located in America’s inner cities. In 2015, companies were ranked by revenue growth over the five-year period between 2010 and 2014.

ICIC relies on a national network of nominating partners, including city offices, economic development organizations, and small business development corporations, to find many of the businesses that appear on this list. Key partners in 2015 were Staples, Chevron, City of Oakland, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation,JumpStart, and World Business Chicago. This list was audited by the independent accounting firm Rucci, Bardaro, and Falzone, PC.

From a Philadelphia glass blowing outfit, to an Oakland-based 3D printing shop, and a high-end Brooklyn chocolatier, America's urban core is filled with a wildly diverse array of fast-growing businesses. Here are this year's 100 fastest-growing inner city companies, as ranked by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City.

Walker-Miller Energy Services LLC

From air conditioners to light fixtures, Walker-Miller Energy Services helps clients lessen their carbon footprint and save money with energy-conserving products and services. Since founding her company in Detroit in 2000, CEO Carla Walker-Miller has seen the city through the depths of its financial crisis, and she describe its residents as more devoted to improving their communities than any other group she’s met. “We are conquerors. We are survivors,” Walker-Miller says. On each project, the company engages between 50% and 70% low-income staff in its mission to grow a more environmentally friendly Detroit.